August 31, 2013

Why hello again boys and girls! The reason for my prolonged absence is likely because I had nothing entertaining to talk about, rather than cram stupid details about my daily life like pictures of food and stuff and various identity crisis etc etc. I have decided to wait for something interesting to happen to me. And lo and behold it has!

So Lucid Dreaming; not sure if any of you have heard of it before, but basically its when you know you're dreaming in a dream. I've actually heard about this in various forms in the past but never really took it seriously until I discovered /r/LucidDreaming . Fascinating. Simply fascinating.

So how can you make yourself conscious in your subconscious? I had a discussion with my father about this topic and we basically agree that Lucid Dreaming is likely mentally moving your conscious into your subconscious while you are conscious and making this into a habit until it happens naturally when you dream. I will have to read more about this from reliable sources but this explanation sounds relatively plausible.

I take it everybody who likely will ever read this blog post has played Minecraft before? Well Lucid dreaming is basically Minecraft in creative mode, high definition and in virtual reality.

I won't bore you peeps with the minutae of how I managed to lucid dream. Long story short.
Keep a Dream Journal.
Develop a habit of Reality Checking ( My current fav is holding my nose and trying to breathe through it <-- doesn't appear too out of place when I do it in real life)
MILD

My First Lucid Dream
One day, after I had been woken up by various members of the household and attempted to go back to sleep whilst doing a FILD. I fell asleep reminding myself to Reality Check in a few minutes. Well I woke up and discovered I had stopped moving my fingers, instead it felt like there was something in my fingers... Chopsticks.
Chopsticks in my fingers in bed...
I moved them and they clicked like chopsticks are meant to.
I immediately did a reality check and thus my first Lucid Dream began!
(I tried out a few techniques that I had read about, spinning teleports don't work for me- i just started levitating instead =="- And I may be slightly terrified of doorways thanks to my magnanimous friend Rhycen)

Once again I won't go into the details of what I did, but it was AMAZING. Right now I can think back and it feels like a dream, but right after I had woken up, I honestly had to reality check again to see if I was still dreaming; it was that vivid.

There are so many things you can do in a lucid dream; build a personal dream base; fly; talk to your subconscious; make a dream teacher( remember your subconscious retains copious amounts of information that you have almost no access to in your conscious state- I can't wait to try studying with this technique! No more late nights for me!) The sky is the limit! And in this case your imagination is the limit!

August 29, 2013

My first initial impression of the Nintendo 2DS was: what was Nintendo thinking? This looks like a child's toy. Although it seems a bit weird, the 2DS still features everything the 3DS has except the 3D and without a clamshell design.

While Nintendo was the first to offer a 3D console, it seems the move hasn't worked as well as the company had hoped: in October, it will launch onto the market a new device called the 2DS.

The big selling point of the 2DS will be its price point. In the US, it will retail for US$129.99, compared to the 3DS, which retails for US$169. In Australia, the 3DS retails for AU$199; the 2DS will come in at AU$149.95.

For gamers with a lower budget, the 2DS could be a real winner, allowing access to Nintendo's latest handheld games and the Nintendo eShop, something that the DS can't provide. It also has Wi-Fi and the 3DS' dual cameras, while a sleep switch on the bottom performs the same function as closing the 3DS.

The new console will be available in two colours, blue and red, on 12 October in Australia. A carrying case will retail separately.

Ooooo I never realised until Suwabe tweeted about it. Prince "SUMMER" is a pun on the "sama" of Uta no Prince sama, since they sound almost the same in Japanese.Also, the Prince Summer site updated, announcing the 5th project, being Prince Summer goods. There will be clear files, note books, badges, poster and bracelets.

Google+ has started rolling out a new update today. The update isn’t huge but it does come with some essentials and a new feature. Among other things, the typical bug fixes and performance enhancements will be there. The big new feature, though, is getting a notification when your photos get auto-awesome’d.

The update hasn’t rolled out to everyone yet so if you haven’t gotten it, just hang in there. It’ll roll out to you soon. For those who keep track, this will be version 4.1.1.

August 28, 2013

If you are a fan of SAO (Sword Art Online) you will surely give this app a go. Named 'SAO Launcher', the app brings SAO-esque calling and messaging interface to your Android device! You can now show off to your friends the cool things you can do with this app!

SAO Launcher is currently heavily in development and so it's pretty limited in what you can do. You can look at your contacts list, message people via SMS, call people and open apps from a list. Other than that, it doesn't do much else. Oh, and it features anooting ads on the bottom of the main screen that cannot be removed unless you pay $2 or so.

Are you ready? HATSUNE MIKU V3 English will be released on August 31st!!!!

Hatsune Miku is “The First Sound of the Future” - a futuristic voice synthesizer software that allows you to easily create vocal parts from scratch by just entering a melody and lyrics. Add vibrato, dynamics and other effects to change the expression of Miku’s singing voice. Compose songs using Miku as your main singer, demo vocalist, chorus singer or experiment with new vocal styles for remixing and other electronic music projects. This all-in-one package includes vocal editor Piapro Studio VSTi, PreSonus Studio One Artist Piapro Edition, and over 200 virtual instruments for your immediate music production.

Yes, and it's official!! There's a new UtaPri project in store! A summer campaign from the boys!

Official site is here. The campaign is held between 27 August 2013 to 9 September 2013.

The blurb on the bottom of the main picture translates to: "Here are the belated summer greetings from the 7 idols of Shining Office. Thanks to you, the idols had an eventful/wonderful 2013 Summer. Thank you for you continuous support. Please continue to look forward to their future activities."
While the main slogan in the middle translates to: "Although we've become adults, we won't forget".

So far there's 4 events/projects listed on the site:
1) and 2) are about the huge posters on the Shibuya109 building. And it's kind of (funny) nice of the company to have this warning that while it's okay to take photos, customers should be careful of their surroundings, especially the traffic.
3) and 4) are about the release of UtaPri Music2 and to celebrate the release, you can get these character "clapping fliers(?)" (ぱたぱたチラシ) [I have no idea what they are...]

This morning the following photos have been circulating around twitter which shows new UtaPri posters on the Shibuya 109 building promoting a new project! No other details of the project has been announced yet, but from the pictures it looks like it involves the Summer theme, and the slogan on the main poster says: "Although we've become adults, we won't forget".

For the majority of users of modern Android devices, Google’s Chrome is the browser of choice, so it’s good to see Google constantly tweaking the app and adding new features.

This week, Google announced that two small enhancements are heading to the stable version of Chrome for Android. The first is reverse image search: long press any image and select image search from the menu to be taken to a list of sites that display said image. This feature mirrors the functionality that is coming on Chrome for desktop. The second change is a new way to switch between tabs using gestures.

More interestingly, JR Raphael of Computerworld found a setting in the latest Chrome Beta that enables a redesigned start page. Just go to chrome://flags from the address bar and check the “Enable the New NTP” option in the settings. This should reveal a work-in-progress variant of the start page that always shows the Google search box, along with thumbnails for most visited pages, and links to Bookmarks and synced devices.

Chrome 29 is the latest build of the browser and it now comes with a smarter Omnibox. The Omnibox brought in a faster way to search with auto-suggestions, and now it gets better with some improvements under the hood. Google says that desktop browser users will see better Omnibox suggestions based on the recency of websites visited, “resulting in more timely and contextually relevant suggestions.” Mac users haven’t been left out in the cold either, as this version has support for rich notifications for apps and extensions that keeps the user in the loop as an app goes about its job.

The latest stable release of Chrome also brought in an interesting new control which allows users to roll back the browser to an earlier clean state. The Reset browser settings button restores browser settings to their original defaults without harming any bookmarks, saved history, or passwords. Think of it as a fail-safe troubleshooter which you can apply when an extension or an install goes wrong. It is just the thing for overzealous trigger-happy extension fans. The Reset browser settings button is located under Settings – Show Advanced Settings.

DS2A's OST #2 was bundled with the 3rd blu-ray release, which was released a few days ago.
I'm crying and remembering so many scenes of the anime as I listen to this CD.
I'm definitely feeling motivated to transcribe a few of these songs for piano!!
DL here.

Here is another Miku theme as requested by Misaki-Cherry Ryuga! It features Miku in a festival dress with bright fireworks and lanterns lit in the background. It is quite a nice picture and definitely worth giving a try!

Gameloft’s Asphalt racing series has been one of the franchises that have constantly pushed the envelope of mobile graphics. With great models, rich textures, and eye-catching effects, the graphics of Asphalt 8: Airborne are not quite console-quality yet, but it’s safe to say we’re slowly getting there.

After a delay of a few weeks (the launch was initially scheduled for August 8), Asphalt 8: Airborne can now be downloaded from the Play Store for the reasonable price of 99 cents.

Under the appropriate “Leave gravity in the dust” tagline, the game showcases 47 cars, of which 80 percent are reportedly new, including licensed models from makers such as Lamborghini, Bugatti, or Ferrari. The developers have supposedly recorded the sounds of genuine car engines to deliver the most immersive and authentic driving experience. Players will get to push said cars to their limits on a variety of tracks, in the over 180 events of the career mode.

Of course, the signature feature of this new arcade title is the liberal interpretation of the laws of physics – a variety of ramps let players get airborne, perform barrel rolls, and even somersaults with their cars. Because, why the heck not?

The game, which was first introduced during the keynote of Google I/O 2013, features excellent integration with the newly launched Play Games Services. There are some in-app purchases to contend with, but if those don’t put you off, Asphalt 8: Airborne looks like a must play.

After three weeks my Hanafuda cards finally came in the mail! Now all that is left is learn how to play the popular Japanese card game, Koi-Koi. Someone care to teach me? No? I might as well go to YouTube for help! =D

Why do hot male anime characters tend to place their hand on their necks? (See Part I) Is it because they have neck pain and need to support their necks or is it because... they want to protect their napes! All the bishies are actually titans!!!